Teaching kids class looking for ideas

[eiger99]

My wife & I are going to be talking to my son's class of youngsters about the sugaring process & wondering if anyone has any ideas.
We are a backyard operations / hobby with about 80 taps and using oil on a 2x3 pan, converted from wood about 2 years ago.
4 Saps
Candia NH

[maplehound]

Take in any tools that you have and explain how you use them. such as your drill and tapping bit, spiles, buckets or tubing set up, Hydrometer, ect. Keep it geared to the age group and dress the part of a woodsman. Pictures are always a good thing, as well as samples. If possible maybe take in some french toastix to dip into the syrup, or make some candy to give out. I also like the color books that are available, they make a good hand out.
Maybe if they have a maple tree on the grounds you can go out a tap it. Most important though is have fun. I have done earth day presentations in the past and really enjoyed it.

[RileySugarbush]

I once saw a demo where a hot plate was started at the beginning of the talk, and at the end, the sap was pretty sweet. maybe started with diluted syrup if sap wasn't available. You may not be able to do that in a school, and would need an assistant to keep watch on it. Having candy samples is a nice touch, too.

[Big_Eddy]

Not sure if you are planning to go into the school, or have the kids out to the bush. I've had the kid's classes out a few times and I usually run something like this. Note that my bush is about 500 yards up the road from the house, and we boil in the front yard.

We start with a discussion at the road about maple syrup and what it is and where it comes from - talk about the time of year and how in the winter the trees go dormant but in the spring they start to come back to life and the sap starts to flow again.

Then I give them a "hayride" up to the bush and we walk into the bush and look at the tools of the trade - the brace, taps, buckets, lids. Usually we will tap a tree while we are there.

Then I hand out a few collection buckets and turn them loose to go collect sap and bring it back to the collection tank. This is usually good for an hour or so - some kids want to check every tree, others prefer to hang around and play in the snow and don't bother to go visit any trees.

Then we ride back down to the evaporator area and stoke up the fire that has all but died down by now. I hand out dixie cups and ladle out sap for all the kids to taste and we talk about how all the sap in my 100 gallon tank will end up fitting into the little stainless steel canning pot that I use to finish with. We do a little math so they understand what 40:1 really means and we play a little game I call "Evaporate" where we start with the 30 or so kids plus 10 parents that always show up and we touch each kid and "evaporate" them 1 at a time calling them "steam" and telling them to dance arounf until there is only the smallest kid left - and I call him/her "syrup". By now we're back to a good boil, and we talk a little bit about the fire and collecting wood and how much we go through, then we dip out some syrup and ladle it into the dixie cups they are still holding (uh huh - sure) and they get to taste the real thing.

Usually take most of an afternoon, by the time they get the kids onto the bus, to our place, through the woods and back onto the bus. We're about 10 mins from the school.

If I was going to do a talk at the school, I think I would take a collection of tools and gear, as well as an 18" long chunk of maple trunk, and I'd tap the block right on the teacher's desk and hang a bucket on it. I'd also want to take a gallon or 2 of sap to let them taste and of course some syrup. Could still have most of the discussions that we do in the bush and we could also play "Evaporate". There are some pretty good educational resources on the web as well. I know the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers Association has an activity for each grade level posted that you might use.

[MaineMapleDave]

What I've done for show & tell with my daughter and friends is to get one of the little "nips" of syrup, usually about 1.4 ounces. Then, in a 1/2 gallon canning jar I put in 40 times that amount of water.

It's kind of a neat "it takes this much sap to make that amount of syrup" demo.

[davey]

Check out this link. It is Cornell's lesson plans for NY State Agriculture literacy day. I am using it at our district. My 7th grade S.A.P.S. Club will be going through a few of the activites with 2nd & 3rd graders.

http://www.nyaged.org/aitc/documents/ALD_Lesson_2008_0220_2008.pdf

[maple flats]

I have done school presentations for groups of kids ranging from grades 1-3 and 4-6 with up to 20 in each class. I give 4 - 30minute talks a half day (in June) and the kids sign up for the demo, mine is always well attended. I take in some tubing, tubing tools, taps,buckets and some short pieces of stasghorn sumac along with many other things. I have posters made up that a local print shop printed and laminated, the posters are from Cornell Maple program and are free to use. If you send me your email, I will send you the files involved if you are interested.
When I do the classes I keep the presentation taylored to the age level. I cover where sap comes from, how to tap, when to tap, how to identify the maple trees (sugar, red and silver). I take in a piece of maple log (about 2' tall) and I have drilled this out so that I feed water (pretend sap) in from a hanging feeding bag (similar to an IV bag) with a small tube down (tube has a crude valve to regulate flow) into a hole in the top of the log supplying the "sap" for the tap in the front of the log. I collect this in a bucket. This sap supply is hidden above the log by a sign I have attached to and wrapped half way around the stump. I just ad lib the talk and accept all questions. I take in some syrup and give everyone a sample cup about half full. I have done this two years now and am already booked to do it again this year. I also happen to drive bus and many of the students have said they want to get in on my presentation but that too many sign up and they end up missing it. I told the school I could just as easily handle 30 kids but they have other unrelated presentations being given at the same time in a round robin type affair and most of the others can not handle the bigger crowd so I do not know if I will get more that 20 in each class this year. If you need any more ideas I wrote about this on this forum in june 2006. You could search it to find more. I am not sure I covered it again when I did it in 07. Good luck and have fun with it.
Dave

[mapleman3]

just be yourselves and speak from the heart... people love to see the passion we have for Maple !

[eiger99]

I'm doing the training on Friday and wanted to thank everyone who viewed and replied to this post it is great info. & hopefully it will help others share our experience with kids.
Thanks again to a great community.
Chuck Belanger

[danno]

I'm doing a 5th grade class this Friday at the sugarhouse. This thread has also given me some great ideas. Thanks!

Although we will be tasting syrup, as my sap has clouded up since our warm up yesterday, I don't think we will be tasting any sap - but a great idea if we were doing this with clear sap.

[ziggy]

If the kids are very young; kindergarden or 1st or 2nd grade; I have made up a length of tubing with drops every few feet and make each child be a tree and hold a drop. It sort of keeps them in one place and from wandering off, physically and mentally.